Artist of the Week, San Antonio Edition: Audiotap (and Mathew Barker)

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Like everyone else who happened to watch The Day After Tomorrow three days before all of this hurricane tomfoolery happened (at the time, it really seemed plausible that that could happen to us), we beat feet outta Houston this past weekend and ended up in San Antonio. Not one to sit around on our hands (read: we have a girlfriend who will apparently die if she doesn't spend some of our money everyday), we took in a few shows by some local musicians.

There was a juke-joint blues band that was somewhat impressive, a flamenco performance at Carmen's (think Cafe Brazil, except way more Mexicans and way less artsy snoot) and an expected Guitar Hero contest at a bar on the Southwest side of town. For our money, though, the highlight of the trip came in the form of an all-ages show at Luna Lounge, where an earthy, acoustic folk duo thoroughly rocked tits.

Desmond Fahie and Mathew Barker were the aforementioned rockers and, to be perfectly honest, put on a show that was quite unexpected. We made certain to get some time in with them in the subsequent days and had them answer a few questions for us.

Houston Press: What is Audiotap, how long has it existed, and how did it get started?

Desmond Fahey: AudioTap is the name I showcase all of my talents under. The name describes how I feel while music is being played,:as if I were tapped into it. I have been using the name for six years but I have been playing music all of my life.

HP: How would you describe your music? Sound, genre, etc.

DF: My music can be best described as eclectically unique, yet surprisingly familiar.

HP: Wow, that's not vague at all. We actually think we saw a "Eclectically Unique Yet Surprisingly Familiar" section at Best Buy, so that works out perfectly. We really enjoyed the "Voodoo Chile" cover that you guys did. Any way we could convince you guys to cover "Texas Flood"? It only seems appropriate right now.

DF: No.

HP: Okay. Thanks for that. So, did you decide beforehand that you wanted a white guitarist for your duo? Kinda like one of those cop flicks where the partners are interracial? If so, we think it'd make you that much cooler.

DF: The duo you speak of is comprised of myself and Mathew Barker. We've been performing as a two-man group on a consistent basis for about a year. We played in a band together for a while but later we both decided to leave and pursue other musical endeavors. Now we write and produce tracks together. If we had to be a well known duo, though, it would probably be the duo from Training Day.

HP: That movie is so dope. How bad did you feel for Ethan Hawke when he was sitting at that table with those Mexicans at the end of the movie? We mean, we hated him after Reality Bites, but, man, even we felt bad for him there.

DF: Not me playa, just a movie. I know real stories that are far worse.

HP: Matt, you've got a wicked cool accent, but we couldn't help but notice that you're lacking a cool facial scar with a mysterious backstory. Any other time we've ever seen dude with an accent like yours it was complemented by the aforementioned mysterious scar. Any way we could convince you to fashion one, preferably 2-3" long, and located somewhere near your chin or right eye? Or maybe you've got a big scar across your chest that's even cooler than a face scar? What's your story?

Mathew Barker: I'm from Dunfermline in Scotland. I've been songwriting for a long time and have had collaborations with a number of different artists in the past from all over the globe. I met Dez thru a funk band we played in and we started producing some basic songs I brought to him. After that we began writing songs together.

To perform a lot of the tracks we produce in the studio, we have to get pretty creative to get our ideas over with just an acoustic guitar and djembe. We both have different musical roots and we have a lot of fun mixing those together and fucking around with ideas. No physical scarring, but have seen a lot of weird shit during my travels.

HP: Ah well. Soon enough I suppose. So what's the music scene like in San Antonio? I mean, other than being second-rate to Houston's or course.

DF: As bleak as everyone makes the future of the music scene seem in San Antonio, I can't help but to be thankful for good venues like the Luna, Rebar, The Mix, etc… I wish you would write about radio prejudices. Real intelligent music is dying every day.

HP: Meh, that stuff's depressing, man. Besides, we wouldn't say that intelligent music is dying every day, there just happens to be more dumb music being played, you know?

DF: It's funny how depressing or unentertaining reality is. Any time the truth falls on deaf ears that is a dead opportunity. - Shea Serrano